The A-Team Comes Together

Okay, I know a lot of people expected this film to be a pile of crap. I have asked literally every single person I know if they wanted to catch this flick and a good amount of them thought it to be garbage. I was not in that camp. I have been looking forward to director Joe Carnahan’s the A-Team since the first trailer came out and I saw the tank sequence. My mind was kind of blown with the over the top action that was teased in those two short minutes of footage. My expectations for this feature as an action movie were really high, I must say. Did Carnahan and Co. manage to fulfill them?

They certainly did. The action movies from the 80’s are arguably some of the most fun (and admittedly terrible) films you could watch. Rambo: First Blood Part II is vastly entertaining from start to finish, but Stallone’s Cobra is downright laughable and makes no sense whatsoever. You can kind of gauge where I am going with this. The A-Team is a film constructed with the old days of action flicks in mind. Rather than focus on an a deep plot with immense plot twists, it would rather focus on the character’s turmoil and all the sweet, sweet explosions that make the genre so damn awesome. Far too often does a movie take itself so seriously that the fun gets sucked completely out of it. Either that or they are written with the presumption that Americans are so dumb that all they care about is CG flashes. Yes, there is CG in the A-Team but it’s not the highlight of the film (save the last five minutes). The highlights of the film are the characters. Murdock, B.A, Face, Hannibal, and a C.I.A operative named Lynch are the reasons why you are watching the movie. They are all entertaining as hell. This is of course thanks to the actors who played them, but also to the script. In a way this is really a labor of love to the action genre as well as the TV show. I am not the biggest A-Team fan but you do not need to be to get into this flick. If you remember when action movies were about bad ass characters, great comedic one-liners, unbelievable action, and the ridiculous explosions then you NEED to see this movie.

The A-Team is about the birth of, well, the A-Team. The movie chronicles how the team was put together as well as how they became operatives that did not answer to the military. For those of you who did watch the show and are fans, the movie is like a kick ass version of the opening of the TV series. We get to see why B.A is afraid of flying, Murdock be bat-shit crazy, Face getting the babes, and Hannibal creating completely insane Ops that are thoroughly enjoyable on screen. Oh, and they get framed for trying to steal plates that end up stolen by someone else. Thus the entire film is about these four hilarious men attempting to clear their name.

YAY:

The action is SO good and is not too reliant on CG. There are some sequences like the tank, where it is robust but I would say it is 50/50 between heavy CG and cool practical effects.

Comedy is vital to the experience of the A-Team. This bunch of characters rib on each other and have some of the funniest quips this side of a Judd Apatow movie.

Sharlto Copley is just awesome. Everyone wondered if his performance in District 9 was a fluke. Copley responds in this movie with an overwhelming, nope.

Fun is pretty much the feeling that summer movies are supposed to instill in us. Honestly, the A-Team is one of the most fun experiences that I have had at the movies in the past three summers, let alone this one so far. It’s not the greatest film ever by any means at all but it is a movie that brings you on a wild ride of comedy and awesome action.

NAY:

The last five minutes is too much like something you would see in Mission Impossible 3 or a Michael Bay movie. The edits are really fast and you never have a feeling like anyone is in danger at all. For a climax, it sucked. It could have been good but as soon as a rocket launcher hits a tanker, it ends up in Michael Bay land and that is the same place that herpes comes from.

There are some really awkward edits in the film that make the filmmakers seem a bit lazy. One sequence in particular, where CIA agent Lynch and Hannibal are talking in prison, their conversation is split up into two parts. One occurs after the other, but the cuts between them make it look confusing as to what time has passed and the order in which the the conversation takes place. I’m knit picking here, but I do it for most movies so A-Team gets the same treatment.

If you have a hankering for some explosions and just an all around fun time at the theater, go and see the A-Team. Do not walk into this movie with the notion that it is going to be one of the most insightful films of the year. Hell, do not dare enter the theater with even an inkling of a intriguing plot. What you see in the previews is exactly what you get. Awesome characters, fantastic humor, balls to the wall splattering action and a damn good way to spend ten bucks on a Saturday night with some friends is precisely what the A-Team is all about.